A new study published in scientific journal Nature Communications distinguishes the reason for extended pancreatic cancer survival: an inverse correlation between a known oncogene, a gene that promotes the development of cancer, and the expression of an oncosuppressor microRNA. The study may serve as a basis for the development of a medicine that can treat pancreatic and other cancers.

A contraceptive device from Israel called Ballerine has refined the intrauterine device (IUD) for greater comfort and safety, according to its developer. Made by OCON Medical in Modi’in, Ballerine is the first product based on the trademarked IUB (Intra Uterine Ball) invented by senior gynecologist Dr. Ilan Baram, medical director of the company.

The cost to treat obesity in the United States alone is expected to rise from $325 billion in 2014 to $555 billion per year by 2025.

Raziel Therapeutics wants to be the Botox for obesity.

Whereas an injection of Botox smooths out wrinkles, this Jerusalem medical startup is developing an injection that doesn’t just smooth, but literally melts away fat cells. Unlike Botox, though, Raziel’s fat-burning approach has the potential to do a lot more than simply make you look better.

CorNeat Vision develops new nanotech solution that could one day help restore sight to millions who have gone blind due to diseases of the cornea.

An early-stage Israeli ophthalmic medical devices startup has developed a revolutionary artificial cornea implant that holds out hope to millions of blind and visually impaired people suffering from diseases of the cornea. The nanotech-based solution by CorNeat Vision of Ra’anana is a synthetic cornea that uses advanced cell technology to integrate artificial optics within ocular tissue.

Jerusalem-based Argaman Technologies’ bio-inhibitive cotton is being made into facial masks, hotel linens, uniforms, active wear and much more.

The constantly intensifying battle against viruses and antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” isn’t only about finding stronger drugs against infection. The focus is moving to preventing infections in the first place. That’s why large companies such as Carrefour, Victoria’s Secret and a Far East luxury hotel chain are looking at unique germ-vanquishing textiles invented by Jerusalem’s Argaman Technologies and manufactured inside its custom-built factory.

A team of Israeli, German and US researchers have developed novel ultrafiltration membranes that significantly improve the process of removing viruses from treated municipal wastewater used as drinking water by cities suffering water shortages.The new approach for virus pathogen removal was developed by a team from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), University Duisburg-Essen, Germany, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

“This is an urgent matter of public safety,” the researchers said. “Insufficient removal of human adenovirus in municipal wastewater, for example, has been detected as a contaminant in US drinking-water sources, including the Great Lakes and worldwide.”

Israeli maker of GlucoTrack believes its noninvasive meter will encourage people with Type 2 diabetes to check glucose levels more often.

People with diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance are advised to spot-check their blood-glucose levels several times daily to reduce the risk of serious complications. That’s a lot of finger-pricking, considering that about 700 million people fall into one of those categories. The Israeli company Integrity Applications put more than a decade into developing GlucoTrack, described as the first truly noninvasive system for self-monitoring glucose levels.

Could the future of early detection really be as simple as breathing into your Smartphone before you ever setting foot in a clinic?

At the forefront of this new innovation is Prof. Hossam Haick, an Arab Israeli professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. As a professor of chemical engineering, Prof. Haick developed the nanotech breath-analysis system now known as Na-Nose. Na-Nose uses nannoarray and breath analysis to detect bio marker of 17 diseases, including cancer, kidney disease, and Heliobactor pylori (a bacteria known to cause peptic ulcers and increase risk of developing stomach cancer).

Parasight diagnostic platform can detect malaria and ID the species in less than 4 minutes, using machine learning and computer vision.

In 2015, about 212 million people were infected with malaria and an estimated 429,000 died from the disease, which is transmitted by mosquito-borne parasites. As Israeli researchers investigate solutions for preventing and treating malaria, an Israeli company founded in 2010 has developed a device that helps labs around the world detect malaria rapidly, reliably and automatically using unique computer vision-based algorithms for identifying blood-related diseases.

Cells that reach out and touch keep cancer alive

In the most common form of leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, immune system B cells refuse to die, eventually clogging the bone marrow and the lymph and blood vessels. But when these same cells are removed from the body into a lab dish, they expire within a few days. “This suggests that something in the cells’ environment acts as a support system, keeping them alive,” says the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Prof. Idit Shachar. She and her group in the Institute’s Immunology Department have identified a protein that lets the cancer cells and their neighbors engage in a “secret handshake” that tells the cells to turn on their long-term survival programs.

Graft material made from the enriched mineral exoskeleton of cultured corals is four times stronger than human bone.

An Israeli bone-graft product made of enhanced coral has received CE approval to start sales in Europe for dental and orthopedic procedures. This unique product is made from corals grown in a closed system using patented technology to provide bioactivity and eliminate biological contamination. Many practitioners and medical device companies have already contacted CoreBone to learn more about its advantages over currently available products for bone grafting, says CEO Ohad Schwartz.

The same bacteria that make your sweaty socks smell are responsible for some 1.7 million hospital-associated infections in the US alone. An Israeli antibacterial fabric may offer a solution.

What makes sweaty socks smell? It’s not the moisture; it’s the bacteria that grow in the damp fabric. If you could alter or banish those microbes, you could wear sweaty socks for a week without offending anyone. Israeli Prof. Aharon Gedanken’s success with antibacterial socks, a product intended for Israeli soldiers that never made it to market, may hold the key to addressing what is actually a global healthcare concern.

If the new treatment mechanism, known as immunotherapy, lives up to expectations, the world of oncology could undergo a real revolution within just a few years - meet Keytruda, Israeli drug for fighting metastatic melanoma.

At the age of 68, Prof. Ben-Shabbat noticed an odd-looking sore on his head. "They told me at the hospital that it's a melanoma and needs to be surgically removed," he relates. "After the operation, I said to myself, thank God it's gone." But the sore reappeared, on his neck this time. The doctors informed Ben-Shabbat and his family that they were dealing with a metastatic growth, and that Ben-Shabbat's future looked bleak. "I underwent surgery again," he recalls. "My wife and children asked the doctor how long I had to live. He said to them, 'Between five and seven months.'"

‘Our enemy is moles and we know how to track them,’ says Lior Wayn, founder of the company that developed DermaCompare.

Every child gets a vision and hearing check in school on a regular basis. Dr. Moshe Fried, an Israeli plastic surgeon, believes an annual skin check is necessary as well, starting in the teens. pasting This is why he agreed to be the medical consultant for Emerald Medical Applications’ DermaCompare, a free smartphone app that uses image processing and predictive analytics to detect changes in marks and moles over time. The app alerts the user to changes that ought to be screened for cancer.

United Hatzalah/United Rescue is training neighborhood first-responder volunteers in cities across North and South America, Europe and India.

When the ambulance on which he was volunteering in the 1980's got stuck in Jerusalem traffic and failed to reach a choking child in time, then-teenager Eli Beer envisioned squads of neighborhood-based volunteers who could reach patients quickly by foot or cycle and begin first aid until the ambulance arrives.

Farmers in the US, Australia, Africa, Brazil and Russia are using the new Taranis system to better plan for preventing weather damage to crops.

In less than 10 years, the world will need 30 percent more food to feed some 8 billion people. Israeli agricultural technologies help farmers everywhere in meeting that challenge by increasing yield, decreasing use of water and pesticides, bolstering crops’ nutritional profile and disease resistance, and lowering costs.

In people with type 1 diabetes, the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas don’t function properly. Daily injections or infusions of insulin are necessary to regulate energy-producing glucose absorption in all the body’s cells. Doctors know how to implant type 1 patients with donor islets full of healthy beta cells, but they cannot keep the transplanted cells from failing within a matter of days. Unfortunately, half of all transplanted patients are back on insulin injections one year later, and 90 percent revert to insulin dependency within five years.

Israeli breakthrough could be key to finding solution for destroying human immunodeficiency virus before it progresses to AIDS.

Similarities between leukemia and HIV recently discovered in an Israeli lab might provide important clues in the search for a clinical solution to prevent and destroy the human immunodeficiency virus, which can lead to the chronic and fatal condition AIDS.

Novel Israeli program teaches adults how to calm themselves, and thereby soothe children easily upset by daily fears and frustrations.

Last summer, as half of Israel’s citizens lived under threat of missiles, the Association for Children at Risk developed a novel Autism and Resiliency Program aimed at soothing frayed nerves of the 1,000 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) it serves throughout the country, by training their teachers and parents how to calm themselves.